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{{multiple image
| width1 = 205
| width2 = 165
| image1 = Kudurru Melishipak Louvre Sb23.jpg
| caption1 = Melišipak kudurru-Land grant to Ḫunnubat-Nanaya<ref group=i name=sb23>''Land grant to Ḫunnubat-Nanaya kudurru'', Sb 23, published as MDP X 87, found with Sb 22 during the French excavations at Susa.</ref>
| image2 = Melischipak kudurru sb22 mp3h9108.jpg
| caption2 = Melišipak kudurru-Land grant to Marduk-apal-iddina I<ref group=i name=sb22>''Melišipak kudurru-Land grant to Marduk-apal-iddina I'', Sb 22, published as MDP II 99, found during the French excavations at Susa.</ref>
}}
'''Meli-Šipak II''', or alternatively ''Melišiḫu''<ref group=nb>''Me-li-''dŠI-ḪU or m''Me-li-''ŠI-ḪU, where the reading of ḪU is uncertain, -ḫu or -pak.</ref> in contemporary inscriptions, was the 33rd king of the [[Kassites|Kassite]] or 3rd Dynasty of [[Babylon]] ca. 1186–1172 BC ([[short chronology]]) and he ruled for 15 years.<ref group=i>''Kinglist A'', BM 33332, ii 12.</ref> His reign marks the critical synchronization point in the chronology of the Near East.

==His provenance==

He is recorded as the son of [[Adad-shuma-usur|Adad-šuma-uṣur]], his predecessor, on a [[kudurru]].<ref>{{ cite book | title = Babylonian Boundary Stones and Memorial-Tablets in the British Museum | author = L. W. King | year = 1912 | publisher = British Museum | page = 16 }}</ref><ref group=i name=takil>''Estate of Takil-ana-ilīšu kudurru'', BM 90827, published as BBSt 3, column 4, line 31, but note King’s 1912 edition uses the alternative reading of the cuneiform –MU-ŠEŠ to give ''Adad-nadin-aḫi''.</ref> Elsewhere he seemed reluctant to name him in his royal inscriptions, despite Adad-šuma-uṣur’s apparent renown as restorer of Kassite independence, which has been the subject of much speculation amongst historians.<ref>{{ cite book | title = Chronology at the crossroads: the late bronze age in western Asia | author = Bernard Newgrosh | year = 2007 | page = 267 }}</ref>

The “II” designation is probably an error caused by over reliance on a single inscription<ref group=i>”Knob” of red stone with votive inscription, BE 6378.</ref> naming one Meli-Šipak, ''son'' (=descendant) of [[Kurigalzu II]].<ref name=brinkman>{{ cite book | title = Materials and Studies for Kassite History, Vol. I (MSKH I) | chapter = * Meli-Šipak | author = J. A. Brinkman | publisher = Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago | year = 1976 | pages = 253–259 }}</ref> He was the last king to bear a wholly Kassite name. ''Meli'' means servant or slave, ''Šipak'' was a moon god,<ref>{{ cite book | title = History of Humanity: From the third millennium to the seventh century B.C. |editor1=Ahmad Hasan Dani |editor2=Jean-Pierre Mohen |editor3=J. L. Lorenzo |editor4=V. M. Masson | year = 1996 | publisher = Unesco | page = 479 }}</ref> but ''Šiḫu'' was possibly one of the Kassite names for Marduk.

==Significance to Near Eastern chronology==

At various points in the sequence of Assyrian and Babylonian kings, references are made by one king to their contemporary. Not until the reign of Meli-Šipak, however, do these connections allow a firm placement in time, which has led Malcolm Wiener to declare:

{{quote|text=Confirmation of the firm foundation of Near Eastern chronology was provided recently by the discovery at Assur of his correspondence with [[Ninurta-apal-Ekur|Ninurta-apil-Ekur]] of [[Assur]] (FRAHM n.d.),<ref>Eckart Frahm, Assur excavations, 2001, (unpublished?) document enumerates teams of horses and rugs sent to Assyria by the Babylonian king Meli-shipak; “13'f., the text states that some of these goods were sent by Mi-li-shi-pak LUGAL KUR Kar-du-ni-ash to [Ninurta-apil]-e(sic)-kur LUGAL dA-shur. The document is badly damaged, like most of the texts unearthed in the "M7 area," and the date formula is broken away.”</ref> thus confirming the overlap of these reigns as required by the independent chronologies of Assur and Babylon set forth over thirty years ago by J. Brinkman.<ref>{{ cite journal | title = Egypt & Time | author = Malcolm H. Wiener | journal = Egypt and the Levant | volume = 16 | year = 2006 | page = 326 }}</ref>|sign=Malcolm H. Wiener|source=Egypt & Time}}

The length of Ninurta-apil-Ekur’s reign is uncertain, as extant copies of the Assyrian King List differ, between three or thirteen years.<ref>{{ cite book | title = Assyria and Babylonia c. 1200-1000 B. C., Volume 2, Part 31 | author = Donald John Wiseman | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1965 | page = 11 }}</ref> From the reign of his son and successor, [[Ashur-dan I|Aššur-dan I]], they are consistent, and supported by extant [[limmu]] lists from 892 BC on.

==Bronze age collapse==

His rule is understood to have been peaceful. Not so for the edges of his kingdom, where the catastrophic collapse at the end of the bronze age was starting to dramatically unfold with many of the cities of the Levant experiencing destruction.<ref name=drews>{{ cite book | title = The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 BC | author = Robert Drews |author-link=Robert Drews | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1995 | pages = 6, 15, 18 }}</ref> The city of [[Emar]], situated in northern Syria, was sacked and a legal document<ref group=i>Legal text Msk. 73273.</ref> was found on the floor in a private house there, dated to his second year.<ref>{{ cite book | title = On the Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Age | author = Edward Lipinski | publisher = Peeters Publishers | year = 2006 | page = 28 }}</ref> The tablet is a short term contract and historian Daniel Arnaud has concluded that only a very short time (“weeks”) elapsed between its preparation and the cataclysmic destruction of the city by “hordes of enemies”.<ref name=drews/>

Despite the carnage wrought by the times on mighty empires such as that of the [[Hittites]], whose capital [[Hattusa]] was sacked around the middle of his reign, there continued to be scientific scribal and construction activity in Babylonia. A divination text<ref group=i>Omen text BM 108874.</ref> lists 25 omens determined by the flight path of a falcon, or ''surdû'', and raven, or ''āribu'', and was written by Bēl-nadin-šumi, son of Ila-ušaršanni, and dated the month of Araḫsamnu, the 8th day, the 3rd year, the 2nd year,<ref group=nb>MU.3.KÁM.2.KÁM.</ref> using the curious double-dating formula adopted during his predecessor’s reign. It begins, “If a man goes off on his errand and a falcon crosses from the right of the man to the left of the man - he will attain his desire.”<ref>{{ cite journal | title = Bird Divination in Mesopotamia - New Evidence From BM 108874 | author = Nicla De Zorzi | journal = KASKAL: Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico | volume = 6 | year = 2009 | pages = 91–94 }}</ref> Meli-Šipak was responsible for building work on the Ekur at [[Nippur]],<ref group=nb>Stamped bricks from altar of the Enlil temple, Nippur, from the Oriental Institute’s 1950 excavation.</ref> the Egalmaḫ at [[Isin]], and a later text,<ref group=i>Temple inventory IM 57150.</ref> a Neo-Babylonian temple inventory, records his benefactions at [[Ur]].<ref>{{ cite book | title = Reallexikon Der Assyriologie Und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie: Meek - Mythologie | author = J. A. Brinkman | editor = Dietz Otto Edzard | publisher = Walter De Gruyter | volume = 8 | year = 1999 | page = 52 }}</ref>

==Relations with Elam==

One of his daughters, allegedly the eldest, was married to the [[Elamite]] ruler [[Shutruk-Nahhunte]]. It was the latest in a series of diplomatic marriages between the Kassite rulers of Babylon and the Elamite Kings but was to have unforeseen consequences as it would lead Shutruk-Nahhunte to believe that he had a claim on the Babylonian throne.<ref>{{ cite book | title = The archaeology of Elam: formation and transformation of an ancient Iranian State | author = Daniel T. Potts | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1999 | pages = 207–208 }}</ref> When he was to later invade and carry away plunder back to [[Susa]], he would have additional inscriptions added to the objects he took in commemoration, for example:

{{quote|text=I am Shutruk-Nahhunte, king of Elam. The god Inshushinak gave me the order...The city of Sippur I defeated...I plundered (lit. “brought into my hand”) the Stele of Naram-Sin and brought it back to Elam... The [[Stele of Meli-Šipak]] I plundered from [Kassite king] Karaindash and brought back to Elam...<ref>{{ cite book | title = Luxury and legitimation: royal collecting in ancient Mesopotamia | author = Allison Karmel Thomason | publisher = Ashgate Pub Co | year = 2006 | page = 104 }}</ref>|sign=Shutruk Nahhunte|source=Royal Inscription}}

==The kudurru tradition==

A boundarystone (kudurru) reports of his passing some land with tax exemptions to his son and successor Marduk-apal-iddina I (''[[Melišipak kudurru-Land grant to Marduk-apal-iddina I|Land grant to Marduk-apal-iddina]]''). <ref group=i name=sb22/> His daughter Ḫunnubat-Nana(ya) was also the recipient of a land grant,<ref group=i name=sb23/> which her father had ''purchased'' on her behalf, disproving the erstwhile theory of Kassite feudalism that all land belonged to the Monarch.<ref name=scheil>{{ cite book | title = Textes élamites-sémitiques, Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse | author = V. Scheil | volume = 10 | location = Paris | publisher = Ernest Leroux |year = 1908 | pages = 87–94 }} + plates 11-13.</ref>

A kudurru records the lawsuits concerning the [[Estate of Takil-ana-ilīšu kudurru|estate of Takil-ana-ilīšu]] over three reigns, spanning [[Adad-shuma-iddina|Adad-šuma-iddina]], Adad-šuma-uṣur and Meli-Šipak.<ref group=i name=takil/> This is notable because Meli-Šipak upholds the decisions of both his predecessors, one of whom, Adad-šuma-iddina, may have been merely a vassal king of Assyrian patronage.

The proliferation of the kudurru tradition around this time, suggests increased patronage from a monarch trying to bolster loyalty to his reign, perhaps to counter the problems of legitimacy or instability. A kudurru granting fifty 'gur' of corn-land in the province of Bit-Pir'-Amurri by the king to Ḫa-SAR-du, an official or ''sukkal mu’irri'', may be one such example,<ref group=i name=hasardu>''Land grant to Ḫasardu kudurru'', BM 90829, published as BBSt 4, in the British Museum.</ref> and the grant to [Me]li-Ḫala may be another.<ref group=i name=hala>''Land grant to'' [''Me'']''li-Ḫala kudurru'', Louvre 6373, published as MDP II 112.</ref> A tablet records a ''rikiltu'' (grant, decree) issued by king Meli-Šipak in his second year of reign to the ''Sangü'' and the ''Satammu'' (temple administrator) of Ezida, a temple in [[Borsippa]].<ref group=i>Meli-Šipak's decree BM 38124 tablet in the British Museum.</ref>

===List of Meli-Šipak-dated kudurrus===
*[[Land grant to Ḫunnubat-Nanaya kudurru]]<ref group=i name=sb23/>
*[[Melišipak kudurru-Land grant to Marduk-apal-iddina I]]<ref group=i name=sb22/>
*[[Land grant to Ḫasardu kudurru]]<ref group=i name=hasardu/>
*Land grant to [Me]li-Ḫala kudurru<ref group=i name=hala/>
*[[Estate of Takil-ana-ilīšu kudurru]]<ref group=i name=takil/>
*Unpublished kudurru<ref group=i>''Unpublished kudurru'', mentioned in MDP I 180 no. 12.</ref>
*[[Stele of Meli-Šipak]] with Šutruk-Naḫḫunte colophon<ref group=i>''Stele of Meli-Šipak'' with Šutruk-Naḫḫunte colophon, Sb 14, published as MDP IV 163.</ref>

==Inscriptions==
<references group="i"/>

==Notes==
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==References==
{{Commons category|Meli-Shipak II}}
{{reflist|30em}}

{{Babylonian kings}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meli-Shipak}}
[[Category:Babylonian kings]]
[[Category:12th-century BC rulers]]
[[Category:Kassite kings]]

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